Die hard champagne enthusiasts may consider
us sacrilegious to add other ingredients to
such a beautiful wine, but here at in-the-spirit,
we just love to experiment and including champagne
in a recipe can make a great cocktail really
spectacular.

Champagne is a sparkling wine of great distinction – turning
any occasion into something a little more special.
There are various styles of champagne: for example
Brut (very dry) and Demi Sec (sweeter) as well
as vintage (made from grapes of one specific
year) and non vintage (grapes from blends produced
in various years). To earn the right to have
the word champagne on the bottle label however,
the liquid inside must be entirely produced from
Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Noir grapes
grown in the Champagne region of Northern France
around the cities of Reims and Epernay. The champagne
producers guard their exclusive name vigorously
and have in the past been to court to protect
it as in 1993 when they went into battle to prevent
the Yves Saint Laurent company producing a perfume
called “Champagne” and won their
case. It is one of the few “white wines” in
the world produced from red grapes – due
to the way they are gently pressed so as not
to bruise the skins. There are also extraordinarily
strict limits on the amount of juice that can
be squeezed from a certain weight of grapes
to maintain the highest quality of champagne
produced.

Here we have selected a few of our favourite
champagne cocktails for you to try out – we
hope you enjoy making them. For the best cocktail
results, always use chilled champagne. Serve
all champagne cocktails in a flute
glass which
allows the bubbles to move from the bottom to
the top of the glass. The more space the bubbles
have to move around in within the glass, the
longer it will keep its fizz!

Referred
to all over the world as the classic
champagne cocktail recipe, thought to have first originated
from the winner of a New York Cocktail competition
in 1899. It sounds like an bizarre combination
of ingredients – but you’ll be
surprised by the result. Drip 4 dashes of Angostura
Bitters on a sugar cube and place in the bottom
of a champagne flute. Cover the cube with cognac – then
top up with champagne. Perhaps what seems most
strange is that as you drink it the flavour
changes from dry to sweet.

This
cocktail recipe is believed to have
been named in tribute to the original “Champagne
Charlie” himself - Monsieur Charles-Camille
Heidsieck who first launched the champagne
brand bearing his name in 1851. Through
his extensive travelling around the
world to promote his champagne, he
became well known for his charm and
his adventures. This cocktail recipe
is a fruity combination of De
Kuyper Apricot Brandy topped up with champagne.

Here’s
a more colourful combination for this collection
of champagne cocktail recipes! Made with De
Kuyper Blue Curaçao, elderflower cordial,
pineapple juice and lemon juice - topped up
with champagne to achieve a vibrant shade of
blue. It doesn’t taste bad either!

A
blend of De Kuyper
Cherry Brandy and pineapple
juice and yes you’ve guessed it - topped
up with champagne. The Cherry Brandy and pineapple
juice mix together to make a dusky pink colour
and give it an exotic fruity tang.

Perhaps
one of the best known cocktail recipes including
champagne after the classic
champagne cocktail.
in-the-spirit recommends using one shot of
De Kuyper Crème de Cassis in a flute
glass and then top up with the champagne for
a subtle pink hued cocktail.

in-the-spirit always recommends using the
most expensive ingredients that you can afford.
However if your pennies won’t stretch
to champagne (always the best to use if at
all possible) you can always use another dry
sparkling wine such as cava from Spain, Blanquette
de Limoux from the South of France or sparkling
Vouvray and Saumur from the Loire valley region
of Western France which are all made using
a similar production process to champagne.

As always in-the-spirit recommends drinking
all cocktail recipes on the site in moderation.